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Ms Gibson said that in total just 16 rumours were examined by the extensive ASIC team.

“There was an extraordinary number of notices that we issued and emails that we looked at," she said.

In September 2008, ASIC sought thousands of emails and messages sent by leading stockbrokers and investment banks.

The regulator was looking for the source of two rumours that swept through the market and drove ­Macquarie Group’s share price down by 33 per cent over four days.

But in the end, Project Mint secured just one scalp, a 32-year-old share trader at boutique share trading house Linwar Securities.

Richard Macphillamy was banned from providing financial services advice for 18 months in last March after he wrote and widely distributed an email falsely claiming that Macquarie Group was struggling to meet withdrawal requests from its cash management trust.

ASIC has received submissions on new guidelines for companies on handling rumours in the market that it will release shortly.

ASIC chairman
Tony D’Aloisio
also told the conference yesterday he felt new phone-tapping and raid powers announced by the government in January should help secure more convictions.

“It gives ASIC another piece in the tool kit so that if, in future cases, it has suspicion that something is going on, it is able, in real time . . . to listen in and gather evidence," he said.